In the dying hours of the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game, there were only three players left at a table. The remaining trio were perhaps the game’s finest cash game experts: Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, and Patrik Antonius. All of them are world famous for the huge pots they regularly play online at Bovada Poker, where they are all sponsored pros. The table had begun with all eight seats full and although the last men standing had been playing for hours, they still had enough energy to generate one of the most explosive pots in poker history.
With only thee hands remaining before the end of the broadcast, Dwan opened from the button with 7h-6h. Phil Ivey clearly felt he had the advantage and elected to push the action with a further raise from the small blind, holding Ac-2d. The player known as durrrr online made the call and the flop fell Jc-3d-5c. Both players had missed the board, apart from a small chance of making a gutshot straight. Ivey continued to play the aggressor, betting $35,000, which was called by Dwan. The turn card proved monumental. A 4 of hearts was next onto the board, completing both players’ straight draws. Unfortunately for Phil, Tom had hit the nuts with a straight to the 7, while the seven-time bracelet holder was left with only a wheel. Ivey kept up the aggression and fired $90,000 into a pot that was already worth $119,500. Tom Dwan then elected to turn up the heat, raising his regular opponent by another $142,000. After some brief deliberation, Ivey pushed in his entire stack, meaning that if Dwan called it would be the biggest pot in the history of televised poker.
Holding the nuts, durrrr wasted no time making the call, quickly putting Ivey out of his misery by flipping over an unbeatable straight. Drawing dead, Ivey remained unmoved, mumbling only, “Wow. That’s no good.” The pot totaled $1,108,500, comfortably breaking the current record of $919,600. This previous hand was, amazingly, also won by Tom Dwan. Facing of against Barry Greenstein on an episode of High Stakes Poker, durrrr managed to crack his opponent’s Aces with K-Q suited. With the board reading 2-4-Q, both players got their money in before a second Queen fell on the turn.
The Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game is a regular high stakes cash game, televised on Sky TV in the United Kingdom. This record breaking hand came in its fifth season, at the tail end of a table that had featured Andrew Feldman, Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow, Cyril Mouly, Allen Cunningham, and Gus Hansen. Thanks to that $1 million pot, Tom Dwan finished with most cash, making a nice $585,000 profit. Meanwhile, an unlucky Phil Ivey finished down $627,000. Other players in the black included Mike Matusow, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, and Andrew Feldman. After the pros called it a night, the host was on hand to talk to Phil and Tom about the record breaking moment. Both tried their best to remain nonchalant, Ivey even claiming that, “It doesn’t hurt at all, I’m kind of immune to it.” Dwan noted, “It was just a sick cooler for him,” adding, “There’s no way he could get away from his hand.”
You can relive Dwan’s first world record here and his latest conquest here.